Classification of trade

There are various types of trade and many technical terms, including foreign trade, domestic trade, international trade, overseas trade, etc.

What is international trade? What is foreign trade? What is overseas trade?

A: International trade refers to the exchange of goods between countries (or regions) in the world through the medium of money. It contains both tangible goods (physical goods) exchange, also contains the exchange of intangible goods (labor, technology), can also be called the world trade (World Trade).

Foreign Trade refers to the exchange of goods, services and technologies between a country or region and other countries or regions in interstate trade activities. It is based on a country or region to view its commodity trade activities with other countries or regions. Sometimes it is also called External Trade.

Overseas Trade (Oversea Trade) refers to the foreign trade of certain island countries such as Britain and Japan or certain island regions such as Taiwan.

What is export trade? What is import trade? What is re-export trade?

A: Export trade is a foreign trade activity in which goods produced or processed by the country (including labor services owned by the country) are sent to foreign markets for sale. In foreign trade activities, often encounter two words “export”, but the meaning of the concept of different, should pay attention to their differences: one for the net exports. This refers exclusively to the part of the export volume of the same commodity is greater than the import volume of the same commodity; the second is the re-export trade. This refers to the purchase of foreign goods and then exported to foreign countries without processing trade activities.

Import trade is a trade activity in which goods produced or processed in foreign countries (including foreign-owned labor) are purchased and then imported into the domestic market.

Re-export trade is distinguished from direct trade between commodity producing countries and commodity consuming countries. It refers to the activity of buying and selling commodities through a third country when the commodity producing country and the commodity consuming country cannot buy and sell commodities directly for some reasons. The third country is not only the identity of the intermediary, but also the owner of the goods, and also to obtain profits through such transactions. This form is re-export trade. Third countries involved in such activities must go through the activities of transfer of value of goods – buying and selling. However, it is not necessary to go through physical transfer of goods, and it is possible to transport goods directly from the country of production to the country of consumption without passing through the country.

What is tangible trade? What is intangible trade?

A: Tangible trade refers to the trade of physical goods in the import and export trade, because these goods are visible and tangible help called tangible trade. The import and export of tangible trade are subject to customs procedures and are reflected in the import and export statistics of customs, thus constituting the foreign trade volume of a country for a certain period of time. For statistical purposes, the United Nations divided tangible goods into 10 categories, 63 chapters, 233 groups, 786 subgroups, 1924 basic items, including almost all commodities of national trade.

The names of the various categories of commodities classified by international trade standards are as follows
Class 0 Foodstuffs and movables mainly for consumption
1 category drinks and tobacco
2 categories of non-edible raw materials (excluding fuel)
3 categories of mineral fuels, lubricants and related substances
4 categories of animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes
5 categories of unlisted chemicals and related products
6 categories of manufactured products mainly classified by raw materials
7 categories of machinery and transmission equipment
8 categories of miscellaneous products
9 categories of other goods not classified

Intangible trade refers to transactions carried out in international trade activities are goods without material form: mainly refers to labor, technology, finance, etc. Intangible trade is usually not subject to customs procedures and is not reflected in the export statistics of customs, but in the balance of payments. The amount of intangible trade is an important part of a country’s balance of payments.

What is transit trade? What is total trade? What is specialized trade?

A: Transit trade is the delivery of goods from country A to country B. Due to the geographical location, the goods must pass through a third country. For the third country, although not directly involved in this transaction, the goods have to enter and exit the country’s national or customs borders and go through customs statistics, thus forming part of the country’s import and export trade.

Total trade refers to a statistical method of dividing imports and exports by national borders, also known as the total trade system. Total trade can be divided into intended imports and total exports. All goods entering a country’s territory are included in total imports, including imports for domestic consumption and imports after becoming part of the re-export or transit; all goods leaving a country’s territory are included in total exports, including exports of domestic products, re-exports of foreign goods and re-exports or transit. Total imports and total exports constitute the total trade volume. Countries that use the total trade statistics method include the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, China and other more than 90 countries and regions.

Specialized trade refers to the statistical method of dividing import and export criteria by customs, also known as the specialized trade system. Specialized trade can also be divided into specialized imports and specialized exports. Specialized imports refers to foreign goods into the customs territory and pay customs duties to the customs, by the customs release can be called specialized imports. Specialized exports are domestic products shipped out of the customs territory and imported without processing and then shipped out of the customs territory of re-export goods. Specialized imports plus specialized exports constitute a country’s total specialized trade. More than 80 countries and regions such as Germany, Switzerland, France, etc. have adopted the specialized trade statistics method.